Sleep Support

Ok, girls. We have got to figure this out!!! Can you both post your little one's feeding and nap schedule for me?
Owen is doing better at night only occasionally waking and even then we have been letting him cry himself back to sleep. Last night he went down with no crying at 9 and slept until 8! Tonight, he is currently crying (we just put him down because we were out late) and hopefully he will go to sleep on his own. But he hasn't had a nap in two days because he cries the entire nap time!!!! I feel like it's two steps forward, one step back!!!! He has been so cranky during the day because he's tired!

I know that Owen started sleeping through the night when I changed his feeding schedule and started to let him cry. I have almost weened him completely. Our schedule looks like this.

8:00 am - Wake and nurse 20 minutes on both breast
9:00 am - 6 tablespoons of oatmeal with 1/2 jar of stage 2 fruit
10:00 am - We attempt a nap here until 12:00 every day
12 pm - 6 oz bottle of formula
2 pm - We attempt a nap here until 4 every day
4 pm - 6 oz bottle of formula
5 pm - 2 jars of stage 2 veggies
6 or 6:30 - little cat nap usually on my shoulder or in the swing
8 pm - 6 oz bottle of formula and 6 tablespoons of cereal with 1/2 jar of stage 2 fruit
9 pm - Bedtime

He is clearly ready for a nap at 10 and 2 but wakes within 10 - 30 minutes of being put down. I have tried leaving him to soothe himself and I've tried going in and rubbing his back for a few minutes but neither have worked.

What do your schedules look like? I am just wondering if a change during the day could make a big impact on the nights.

I'll be thinking of you both tonight!

This can be off by an hour or so depending on how long she actually naps.... but a typical day looks like this for us.

7:15 am- wake up
8:00 am- Offer her 4.4 ounces of formula, she usually drinks 2-3, and whatever is left goes into her oatmeal. Then she eats 1/4 cup of oatmeal with 1 container of stage 2 fruit mixed in.
9:00-10:00 am- Nap time.
12:00 pm- drink 4.4 ounces of formula
12:30 pm- lunchtime, 1 jar of stage 2 baby food, 1/4 cup of oatmeal.
1:00-2:30 pm- nap time.
4:00 pm- 4.4 ounces of formula, then a snack usually some finger foods, or about 1/2 a jar of stage 2 fruit or veg
4:45-5:15 pm- cat nap.
7:15 pm- bathtime
7:45 pm- Drink 2 ounces of formula, eat 1 jar of stage 2 baby food and 1/4 cup of oatmeal with 2.2 ounces of formula mixed in.
8:00 pm- Bedtime.
10:00 pm- Wake up crying. We turn her music on, help her back to sleep.
12:00 pm- Wakes up to Drink 4.4 ounces of formula
4:00 am- Wakes up to Drink 5.5 ounces of formula
7:15 am- Wake up for the day

I have tried offering her more food in one sitting and more formula in one feeding, and she will not drink or eat more than that. She only drinks more than a 4.4 ounce bottle once during the night, she doesn't like milk very much. I do mix her cereal with formula, so she gets about 4 extra ounces of formula from her oatmeal. I think in a 24 hour period she drinks between 22 and 24 ounces of formula straight from her bottle.

hmmmm....
Well, at first glance, if I didn't know anything about you, I would say the problem is
that LM wants her biggest bottles of the day in the middle of the night. Now, how you correct this is beyond me!!!

I know you guys don't have health insurance right now but have you thought about
calling the nurse at your old pediatrician's office and asking for advice? Also, I have a friend and her baby was breastfed until 10 months. At 10 months the little girl weened herself and so my friend gave her goat's milk instead of cow's milk. Since LM isn't crazy about formula I wonder if she could have goat's milk instead? That may be something you could ask the nurse.

I know we talked about offering her milk from a sippy cup a few months ago and she wasn't interested. Maybe you could try that again? You are doing a really good job of getting milk in her in other ways but she is drinking almost 10 oz in a 4 hour time span in the middle of the night! What happens if you just don't feed her or offer her less milk at those two feedings? I think it was Bryony that offered her daughter diluted milk several nights in a row and she quit waking for it. (correct me if I'm wrong)

I don't know what the solution is, hon! I think I would call your old ped's office and ask them for advice. I'm sure they wont mind talking to you!

I wonder how Skyllar is today?!!!

Hi ladies,

I am ok, thanks for asking Lou Lou!!

We had a decent night, still letting Kian CIO, and feeding him once at night after 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I read both Tiff's and your routine and Kian's looks pretty similar, except that he is eating less solid food and since I still breastfeed him on demand during the day those days that I am home, I have no idea how much BM he has each feed.
I still think he could eat more, and I started feeding him more solid food today. It's just so hard for me to get him on more solid with the little time I have and the days when I am at work. But we are trying, so maybe that'll help him sleep longer.

Will post my routine tomorrow, have to create a final before tomorrow.

Just wanted to give you guys an update on Addy's sleep. She has been doing great. She normally goes to sleep at 7, has a dreamfeed at 10:30 , and then sleeps until 7-8:30 am. This is amazing to me because we were having such a hard time before. I used a sleep program Mum of JJ shared with me and it really seemed to work for Addy. I highly recommend it.

We are currently trying to figure out nap times. Addy is napping longer now and putting her down for her third nap means she gets up too close to her bedtime. She can't quite make it to her bedtime though without getting cranky. Two nights ago I put her in out baby carrier and just went on a walk with her and this seemed to keep her happy. Last night we went ahead and put her down for the third nap but then she didn't go back to sleep until 9 and she wasn't herself. I think she knew her schedule was way off. So I think we are going to just drop that third nap.

Yeah Brie!!!!
Isn't it exciting when they start to sleep?! We are struggling with nap time too but for different reasons. Have you thought about letting her have a cat nap? That's what I do for Owen. He usually will take a 30 minute nap between 6 - 7 and then can make it until bedtime which is 9. I have to wake him up or otherwise he would sleep a lot longer but it seems to do the trick.

How did Kian and LM do last night? Owen went to bed at 9 and slept until 9:30!!! I was shocked but sooo excited! I'm curious to see how it will effect our naps today!

Well Kian did better, but still not STTN :lol: I am just waiting for that day...............................................

He went to bed at 7:45pm, woke a few times between 11:00 and 11:30pm, he cried and settled himself within seconds to one minute. Then he slept until 2:45am (6 1/2 hours without a feed - not bad), I fed him and he went back to sleep immediately and woke at 6am, I took him into bed with me and he slept till 9am. Not fantastic, but much better...

Hey,perhaps someone can PM Teressa (mum of JJ) and ask her to post the sleep thingy here.I have heard wonders about it,maybe it would help with some of you gals n your little ones?Worth a shot.xxx

Thats great news, Skyllar 6.5 hours is brilliant. If only they would sleep like this consistently!!

Unfortunately, the doctor we used to go to isn't a pediatrician and it's a clinic that is very disorganized, and they don't give info over the phone, I have tried. I read up on Goat's milk, but have decided to just wait it out for 3.5 more months until she's one I drank goats milk as a kid when we used to go and visit my Aunt and Uncle. They had chickens and a goat and they milked it every morning, and drank the milk. I didn't like the milk at all, and I just can't bring myself to give it to LM.

I also have tried watering down her formula or giving her less, and if it's watered down she just pushes it out of her mouth and screams and cries. I tried just giving her a few ounces, but she just woke up an hour later starving.

I think she is just going to have to outgrow this. I guess I didn't sleep all night until I was almost 15 months old. I guess I am getting pay back for what I put my mom through

I let LM cry for an hour last night. She went to bed around 7:20 pm, and woke up crying at 8 pm and again at 9:30 pm. I let her cry until 10:30 pm, off and on. Finally I fed her, she downed her bottle and slept until 2:30 am. She woke up again to eat at 6:30, then went back to sleep until 8 am. I slept until then.

I have tried keeping her up later, but it only makes her tired and miserable. I've tried cutting out her third cat nap and putting her to bed earlier, it makes no difference. DH has agreed to take her every saturday night so I can sleep with no interruptions, which helps. She'll just have to grow out of this!!!

Well, Kian did not sleep too well last night : 4.5 hours, then 3, then in my bed another 2-3 (I don't remember) - I was soooooo tired. Oh, I guess the first time he woke up because he peed himself so he wouldn't settle - until I noticed and changed him and nursed him since I was awake...

I bet his sleep pattern (if there is one) will be nicely interrupted by our travels overseas and the 6 hour time difference there - so who knows what happens on the trip and how strict we can be about sleep training there.....

I am writing this, cause Kian is still not sleeping through the night, or anywhere close to that really. He was doing better just before we traveled overseas, but then there he had to adjust to the 6 hour time difference, then he got two teeth, then we traveled back and he had to deal with the time shift again.
So needless to say, the past week since we got back, we had maybe one good night or so. I have been coming down with a cold and am sick; Kian slept terribly last night and the night before, waking at least every 3 hours. He is drooling tons - so it might be another tooth bugging him or he might be getting sick. Who knows, I am just hoping for a better night again sometime. :lol:

How are everybody else's little ones sleeping these days?

Nicki - so sorry things are not improving.
Owen started sleeping through the night just days after he turned 6 months. I think for two reasons - we upped his milk intake a TON. He now drinks 24 oz of formula a day and has 3 solid meals AND we let him cry a LOT for about 3 nights.
I know you've tried CIO so I'm not sure what else you could try.

Would you mind posting his current schedule for me again? I just keep looking for clues.... I know that him sleeping through the night would help you in more ways than one!!!!! Do you nurse right before bed? Do you give him cereal before bed?
If not, maybe you could try giving a big warm bowl of cereal and fruit about 30mins to 1 hour before bed? Does he sleep with you or in his bed? (Just trying to get a full picture here)

Thanks Lou Lou, for the support. It means a lot!!!

We tried the CIO several times, once for a few days, once for almost two weeks and it did not improve Kian's sleeping much. He got sometimes after that a stretch a little longer, maybe 5-6 hours, but that was it.

Okay, here goes his current schedule when I am at work:
6:30-7:30am (sometimes 8:30am) wake for the day, nurse (this is right before I go to work, so I nurse him)
10:00am solids (cereal and fruit, yogurt, cereal and fruit; 1 little jar (1/2 big jar) of fruit; thawed breast milk (3-4oz.)
11:00 or 11:30 nap (usually for 30-40 minutes, on good days 1 hour)
2:00 pm solids (2 diff. vegetables, or 1 veggie 1 fruit); thawed breast milk (3-4oz.)
3:00 or 3:30 pm nap
5pm nurse
nurse on demand until bed time (or another solid feed; depends on time when I get home)
7 or 8pm bedtime

When I am not at work, the schedule differs slightly as I still nurse him on demand. Other than that, it is similar to the above schedule.

Last night he woke once at 2am (well he woke a couple times, but I let him CIO and he went back to sleep), I nursed him and then woke at 6am, I nursed him and put him in bed with me where he slept until 8:30am.

The only reason why I am worried to cut out all of his night feeds, is that he weighs 16 pounds 8 ounces, at almost 9 months, which puts him in the 3rd percentile for weight.

Any ideas on what I could do? What would you do in my shoes?

At first glance, I noticed that while you are at work he only drinks 8 oz of milk. Have tried giving him more? Do you have any guess as to how much he is drinking when you nurse in the morning and at night? Maybe he is waking in the night to try to get some extra calories? My pediatrician said our ultimate goal is to get the needed calories during their waking hours instead of spread out over a 24 hour period....... Just a thought.
Owen is younger than Kian and he is drinking 18 - 24 oz of formula a day. Plus three solid meals.
Our schedule looks like this on the days he eats 24 oz

9 am 6oz formula
10 am 1/4 cup oatmeal with 1/2 jar of stage 2 fruit
1 pm 6 oz formula
2 pm 2 jars stage 2 veggies (sometimes he will only eat 1 1/2 jars)
5 pm 6 oz formula
8 pm 1/2 cup cereal with 1/2 jar of stage 2 fruit
and 6 oz bottle.

He only drinks 18 oz on days that he sleeps really late. but it's basically the same plan.

When you let him CIO how did you do it? Did you do controlled crying or did you just let him cry until he fell asleep? Did you go to him if he woke in the middle of the night? Does he sleep on his tummy? Does he use a pacifier?
Sorry for all the questions - I'm just trying to figure it all out!!!!

Oh man I so feel you Sky. The best LM has ever done is two, 6 hour stretches. I still let her CIO every night for at least one hour. I cut her 3rd nap. I make sure that between her afternoon nap and night time sleep.... there is a 4 hour gap. I have let her scream bloody murder for 2 1/2 hours without going into her room, and it did no good. LM is still very inconsistent. Some nights she's still up every four hours... some nights she'll sleep 6 hours then 4 hours. Some nights she'll sleep 4 hours then 6 hours. Some nights she'll sleep 5 hours, 5 hours, then 2 hours. I am always woken up twice after I go to bed. I am grateful when she sleeps 5 hour stretches.

We have not been to the doctor since she was 4 months old, we haven't had any insurance. We should have insurance within 20 days. I feel like such a bad mom. I want her fully checked to make sure that she has no underlying health or tummy issues. You never know.

I cannot get her to drink more than 24-26 ounces in a 24 hour period. She also will not drink more than a 4.4 ounce bottle during the day. She will only drain a 6.5 ounce bottle at night when she is half asleep.

Our day schedule is always the same:

7:15 a.m- wake up drink 4.4 ounces.
8 a.m- 3/4 cup of stage 2 fruit with 1/4 cup of oatmeal, bits of bread or cereal bits to follow as finger foods.
9:15-10:15 a.m- nap
10:15 a.m-11:15 a.m- Go for a walk outside
12:00 noon- drink 4.4 ounces
12:15- eat 1-1/2 jars of stage 2 food, finger foods to follow-either fruit, or 2 rice rusks.
1:15 p.m- 2:45 p.m- Nap
3 p.m- 4.4 ounces of formula and one baby yogurt
6:15 p.m- bath time
6:45 p.m- Drink 4.4 ounces and eat one stage 2 jar of baby food: veggie/meat
7:00 p.m story
7:15 p.m.- Bed time.

USUALLY...... She wakes up twice at night. Between 11 and midnight, and again between 4 and 5:30 a.m.

Hey Ladies!

Lou Lou is that Mailey? Hey Hun!!! How r u

I do have sleep problems with Jasmin unless I do the following things:

Lay her on her side
Swaddle her tightly so she cant escape
Have a womb bear next to her
Rocking cot
Dummy or Paci

The combo will allow her to sleep through the night for around 7 or 8 hours but without them she will go 3 hours or 4 max.

Bad nights she will be up every hour or half hour

Ahh.

Erm...She has some constipation issues since intro of solids ; she maxed out on the baby rice n got constipated so ive cut that out. THats another thread but! That caused a lot of sleep disturbance still I got it sorted

Hey D - yes it's Mailey lol!!!!

Sorry to hear you too are having sleep issues.

Girls - I wish I could do something for you all! I almost feel guilty that Owen is sleeping so well.
I know the frustration and the exhaustion you are experiencing and it sucks to not know when things will improve.

Tiff - don't for one second feel like a bad mom! You are a GREAT mother and LM is lucky to have you! I'm SURE she is perfectly healthy - she's just afraid she's going to miss something exciting at 2 am!

Hang in there!

Oh Tiff and D, sorry to hear that your little ones are not sleeping well either.

Last night was better: Kian woke only once (around 1:30am) for a feed and then at 6:30am for the day. But he is also so erratic when it comes to sleeping, so I am not usually expecting two good nights in a row.

D4A, it's great to have you on here hun!!! I am Tiff_P btw

I found that for constipation issues.... it helped when we switched to oatmeal.

Whew! I hope your babies do better than Thane! He is almost one and still wakes at least once thru the night (usually 2 am) :S Oh well... *sigh* I'm used to it now! :lol:

Tiff - I didn't know oatmeal helped with constipation! I started giving Owen oatmeal once a day and rice cereal once a day just for variety and he poos all the time now! I wonder if it has anything to do with that?!

Sorry ..... totally off topic.

Sky - glad to hear Kian did better last night... hope he keeps it up!

Yes oatmeal,or in england "porridge" it's because it's brown grains or whole grains which contain more fibre and help...um...'keep things moving" I have to give it to little girly otherwise blockages occur.I did give her rice cereal a lot but it's a white grain and is more starchy which is what was blocking her up,also certain fruits and veg can slow things down.Lots of apple and carrots tend to cause slowing of the bowels.Whole grains are best though for beating constipation!

Hey Ladies!!!

Great to be amoung u!!

Princess Longbottom your little girl is so adorable, she is beautiful! She looks like a lil baby model. You must be so proud

My MIL did a trick on Jas, she baked a chapati, put fennel seed on it and put it on jasmns tummy. Made her poo immediately!! constipation sortd!

Do you think breast fed babies wake up more anyway??

yes, D. Breastfed babies tend to wake more often because they get hungry faster than formula fed babies.
Apparently breast milk is digested faster.

As far as the oatmeal goes, duh, I don't know what I was thinking! It makes total sense. Maybe that's what has Owen pooing often!!!!

I was gonna post in Loulous thread but I didn't want to hghjack.So...I'll post here.As most of you know.Tia-li has been prety much an easy sleeper.I still nurse her on demand and she has now been on solids for almost 3 months.She has 4 melas a day ,a big breakfast,two small jars (Sometimes she wont all of them) of fruit in between and then a big bowl of otameal at night because it fills her up and digests slowly.She doesnt appear hungry for anything else in the day.I try offering her puffs,or things in her mesh feeder which she sometimes nibbles on but I think thats more a teething thing.SO I THINK she is getting enough food.She weighs 20lbs so I know she's not skinny

So...my issue is...since about 2 months ago,she started waking int he ngiht again from waking only once.I didnt have a problem at first.but now that we are on a good routine
( wake at 7:30-8:00 for the day
nap once about 10 am for an hour,
nap once between 3-4 for an hour,sleep for the night after dinner and a BFing at about 7:30-8:00pm

So,I put her to sleep in the pack n play usually and once she's down she woulf wake about midnight for a feed,then I put her back down and about 3am-4am she wakes and continues to wake from then on sometimes every hour sometimes more until finally about 7:30-8 We get up.

Well,at the suggeston of sevral of you on here.I put her in her room to sleep last night and the night before,although it killed me to do it,I think it might be best.Anyway,my results we SLIGHTLY better.She went down as usual and woke about 2am for her feed,but then,same thing,wakinh every hour and not wanting to nurse,just cat napping and waking and crying,she woke Teo up at 5:30am this morning anf he though it was time to get up bless him.So anyway,it's still not quite working.Does anyone have any idea why this might be.I DO think she's got a tooth coming in at the moment but this has been going on like I said for almost over two months!Thgouths please!